A collection of reflections and homilies that speak to God's unconditional love for each of us; and how, as brothers and sisters, we are called to love and forgive one another as God loves and forgives us.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Monkey Butt

If God really loves us so much why does he allow bad things to happen?

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Before retiring I worked for many years at Hackensack University
Medical Center. At least once each day I would ride the elevator in
The Tomorrows Children Building. Frequently I would share that elevator with
young children who were very, very sick.

One day I stepped into the elevator with a young boy, about five years
old and his mother. He was in a motorized wheelchair and
appeared to be paralyzed from the neck down ─
a condition I assumed had been present from birth. He was unable to speak but
could mouthed words that his mom could understand.

I was overcome by a feeling of pity for the boy and
his mother; and in my head I started asking a recurring question, “Why God? Why
do you allow such suffering exist?”

I was distracted from my thoughts by the laughter of the boy’s mother. She
giggled to her son, “No, you’re a monkey butt!” His eyes were bright with
laughter as he mouthed the words back to her, “No, you’re a monkey butt!”

This playful bantering between a mother and child,
who obviously loved each other very much, kept up as she wheeled him off the
elevator to whatever life-sustaining treatment he was getting that day.

As I stood alone in the elevator I realized that I had been in the
presence of God. God was very much there in the flow of love between
that mother and child. No matter how much pain and anguish lived in that
mother’s heart, no matter how debilitated that little boy was, their hearts
were totally open to each other, open wide enough to share the gift of laughter
and silliness.

God was present in the center of the cross that was shared by that
mother and child, just as surely as he is present in the center of
the cross that hangs over our parish altar. Our loving God is with us in the
midst of all the bad things, all the suffering we experience.

And in witnessing that scene and experiencing that
presence of God between mother and child, I can almost understand why God
permits suffering.

The bad things that happen in life and the sufferings that we experience
are locked in a moment in time. Yet God, as well as each
one of our immortal souls, is timeless; and God is with us here in time,
holding our hand through the suffering.

Some day, when we are free of the constraints of
human existence and the limitations of human understanding, it will all make
sense; there will be a happy ending – or more truly, a happy beginning. If we
could see eternity and the timeless love that awaits us with God, the
sufferings that we witness and endure here in life might more easily be
understood.

God is so good to us that he gives us a preview: he
shows us his face in the suffering. All we have to do is look; all we have to
do is listen. God is present in the simplicity of the wind. God is present even
in the silliness and the laughter of a word like ‘monkey butt’.